The book collection at St Guthlac's priory, Hereford, before 1200 : Acquisition, adaptation and use

This investigation into the history, content and nature of the book collection at the Priory of SS Peter, Paul and Guthlac, Hereford, constructs a detailed history of the priory and its two predecessors, St Guthlac’s Minster and St Peter’s Church, until 1200, by way of a context for the collection’s three earliest surviving manuscripts. The wider literary and cultural climate of the West Midlands in the period up until 1200 is also taken into account in this construction of context, as are any references to the book collection in primary or secondary sources. With a contextual framework thus established in the first section of the thesis, the second section goes on to describe the three study manuscripts (Hereford, Cathedral Library, O. VI. 11 and P. III. 2, and Oxford, Jesus College 37) in turn, with the contents and structure of each situated within the literary and cultural milieux outlined in the previous chapters. In providing both a fuller description of the study manuscripts and a more comprehensive history of the Hereford churches implicated in their use than have hitherto been available, the thesis sheds new light on the nature of the relationships that existed between the churches and between their book collections, clarifying their position within contemporary networks of book production and dissemination. The thesis suggests an earlier provenance and a common point of origin for the two earliest manuscripts from St Guthlac’s Priory: it argues that Hereford O. VI. 11 and Jesus 37 were produced at Gloucester Abbey, with the former sent to St Guthlac’s Minster and the latter to St Peter’s Church. It also suggests that the transmission of manuscripts from Gloucester to Hereford at the beginning of the twelfth century reflected Gloucester Abbey’s concern to extend its influence into the city of Hereford, to the detriment of Hereford Cathedral and in partnership with the local nobility. The thesis also identifies changes in the character of Gloucester Abbey’s daughter cell in Hereford, which became more independent after refoundation as the priory in 1143. This was reflected in patterns of book acquisition, as the priory developed into a noteworthy repository of books in its own right. The character of its growing collection owed as much to the influence of Hereford Cathedral as to that of its mother house, and numerous bequests by individual donors added considerable variety to its holdings.